As we do after every legislative session, we prepared a legislative scorecard so you, our members, can see where each legislator stands on civil liberties issues.
But here was the problem this year: because best practices dictate that we score only those bills that were voted on by the entire legislature, the scorecard cannot possibly tell the whole story.
There were many bills that the ACLU championed that moved in one chamber but could not survive the political landmine of the split chamber legislature. For example, the ACLU championed a bill that would have made it easier for the transgender community to change the birth marker on their birth certificate. This approach would put Colorado in line with Federal State Department practices and would have been a significant victory for the transgender community. The bill passed the House with bi-partisan support, but it failed on a party line vote in the Senate State Affairs Committee. Significantly, those voting against the bill – Senators Scott, Sonnenberg and Hill – scored 60, 60 and 100, respectively on the ACLU scorecard.
Also, another bill the ACLU championed - the Homeless Bill of Rights, which would have prevented Colorado municipalities from enacting or enforcing laws that criminalize the existence of our state’s growing homeless population, was killed in its first hearing before the House State Affairs Committee.
In addition to these defeats, we had victories as well. For example, our significant victory in defeating a DNA collection bill in the House Judiciary Committee on a bi-partisan vote. We also successfully defeated a fetal personhood bill in the House State Affairs Committee after it passed the full Senate.
Despite the challenge of the split legislature, we found many new allies from both sides of the aisle and began a unique bi-partisan movement supporting civil liberties. We saw coalitions of Republicans and Democrats jointly sponsoring legislation that supported privacy rights, criminal justice reforms, and government transparency.
Overall, we took positions on 81 bills. We saw a 61% rate of success overall, winning 52% of the bills we supported and defeating 71% of the bills we opposed. Although the bad news may be that we didn't succeed in creating a lot of new laws to move our state forward, the good news is we prevailed in defeating several bills that would have infringed on individual rights and civil liberties. The other good news is the growing bi-partisan movement favoring civil liberties of which we are an integral part. We will continue to foster this movement and build momentum for legislative initiatives that advance the civil liberties of all Coloradans.
View our 2015 Legislative Scorecard.

June 29, 2015 DENVER - Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado are applauding a decision today by the Colorado Supreme Court striking down a Douglas County school voucher program that had allowed taxpayer dollars to flow directly to religious schools.

In a decision announced this morning, Colorado’s highest court ruled that the county’s so-called “Choice Scholarship Pilot Program” violates the Colorado Constitution because it improperly diverts public funds to private, religious schools. Citing Article IX, Section 7 of the state Constitution, the court explained, “[T]his stark constitutional provision makes one thing clear:  A school district may not aid religious schools. Yet aiding religious schools is exactly what the [voucher program] does.”

“Parents are free to send their children to private religious schools if they wish, but the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed today that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for it,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein.

Counsel for Petitioners, Matt Douglas, said that: “The court made clear that this type of program violates the plain language of the Colorado Constitution, and rejected the argument that temporarily passing the money through the hands of parents could avoid this specific prohibition.”

The program provided 500 students with vouchers worth about $4,600, which could be spent on tuition at religious and other private schools. In order to obtain per-pupil educational funds from the state, Douglas County classified these children as “public school students” who attended a charter school that did not actually exist.

In reality, the voucher money was spent at district-approved “Private School Partners,” a collection of private schools. According to the Court, 16 of the 23 approved Private School Partners were sectarian. The court found that this violated the “broad, unequivocal language forbidding the State from using public money to fund religious schools.”

“The Colorado Constitution provides very strong safeguards for the separation of church and state, and today’s decision preserves and honors those protections,” said Heather L. Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

“It is unconstitutional to bankroll religious schools with public funds,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “But that is precisely what would have happened in Douglas County had the Colorado Supreme Court ruled otherwise.”

In 2011, the civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents, clergy and taxpayers. A lower court decided in their favor, but in 2013 the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the program.

Plaintiffs were represented by Douglas, Timothy R. Macdonald, and Michelle K. Albert of Arnold & Porter LLP; Alex J. Luchenitser and Ayesha N. Khan of Americans United; Weaver and Daniel Mach of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief; and Silverstein and Sara Rich of the ACLU of Colorado.

More on this case

June 29, 2015
DENVER –The Colorado Supreme Court today struck down a Douglas County voucher program that had attempted to provide public education funds to private religious schools.  The ACLU of Colorado, which argued the case before the Court last December, will hold a press conference at 1:15 today at 303 E. 17^th Ave in Denver to respond to the decision.
WHERE:
ACLU of Colorado 303 E. 17^th Ave. First Floor Conference Room Denver, CO 80203
WHEN:
TODAY, June 29, 2015 1:15 pm MT (Updated from 12:30 pm)

Resources:

Visit the ACLU case page with corresponding legal documents: https://aclu-co.org/court-cases/la-rue-v-colorado-board-of-education/

View: Civil Liberties Groups Ask Colorado Supreme Court to Strike Down Douglas County Voucher Program.